Laelius On Friendship Analysis

A friendship relies on the goodness of both people; if goodness is not present the friendship will cease to exist. Cicero uses many different instances in his book Laelius: On Friendship to explain how a friendship relies on the goodness of both people to survive. First he starts by talking about the types of friendships that come to an end when goodness ceases to exist. He explains that some friendships rely on advantages, but these friendships never last. He states that “if advantages were what kept friendships together, the removal of that advantage would mean that the friendship itself would cease to exist” (194). A friendship should rely on the qualities of both people, and not on the advantages you get from them. Cicero explains that “when a man shows kindness and generosity, his motive in doing so is not just too exact repayment” (193). Next he talks about friendships that fail due to one person asking too much of the other. He brings in the example of Tiberius Gracchus, “As for Tiberius Gracchus, when he was disrupting the government, we saw how Quintus

Tubero and other friends of his own age completely abandoned him” (196). If what one friend asks causes conflict with what can be seen as right and wrong the friendship will struggle to remain. Cicero states that “this is the rule we must lay down between friends: do not ask anything that is wrong, and if you are asked for such a thing, turn the application down” (198). This should hold true throughout all friendships, and should never be broken.
Next he begins to talk about what keeps a friendship together.

Here he explains that a friendship relies on love, saying “for goodwill is established by love, quite independently of calculation of profit: and it is from love, amor, that the word for friendship, amicitia, is derived” (191). Love brings together friends, and keeps the friendship strong. Also Friendship must be genuine in that no falsity can be present. Cicero states “it cannot under any circumstance be derived from any calculation of potential profit” (191). This means that a friendship must not be derived from the profit of one person or the other. That the friendship must derive instead from the genuine affection (or love) that both people feel for one another. Friendship will forever rely on the goodness of the people in it. As Cicero says “friendship owes its entire origin and character. Without goodness, it cannot even exist”

(187).
Throughout the book Cicero explains how friendship must contain goodness or else it will fail. This also holds true in many books. One example of this can be found in Dead Man Wonderland. In this horror novel the two main leads Ganta and Shiro meet at the jail known as Dead Man Wonderland. Ganta has been framed for the brutal murder of his entire middle school class. Whereas the real killer, The Reached Egg, roams free, or so Ganta thinks. He and Shiro become close through many trials or games that are put on for their expense and the curator’s entertainment. On more than one occasion Shiro saves Ganta from near death, so Ganta feels that he owes her a debt of gratitude and sticks close to her. Due to them always being together they form a bond of friendship, but soon Shiro’s true identity is revealed. In fact, she turns out to be The Reached Egg. Due to this Ganta loses all interest in helping her, and instead starts to want to kill her for what she had done to his classmates. This is an example of someone that loses the goodness that the other held dear and becomes someone that he cannot stand, a killer. As Cicero says once a person stops being good it becomes hard for a friendship to continue to go on. Once Ganta finds out that Shiro killed his friends and classmates, he rejects any notion of friendship. Instead whatever friendship once resided ceased to be there and instead hate began to rise up in its place.